


«5°,* 



•^o-? 



" .<i^ °'^ 



1 I 



« 






0>S 



-oV^ 






./\, 



s.^"^ 



^^"^ 



• » 









"^ •^ » « "* V^ 



•^' 










O « h 







•^t 



oV' 




•?.'' 






'oV' 



"^ot? 






ROGER SHERMAN OIX 

LIEUT. COL. U. S. A. 




Roger Sherman Dix 

Brevet Lieut. Col. U. S. A. 



Being a Brief Account of his Public Services and Death. 
From Official and other Authentic Sources. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



By HOMER L. CLARK. 

Member of the Washington County Historical Society. 




WASHINGTON. PA. 

PUBLISHED 8Y THE AUTHOR 

1905 



LIBRARY of OONGRESS 
Two Copies rtectiivcu 

JUL 8 «y05 
Oouvnaiii tuirv 

COPY B. 



E4-l\ 

•T]£ 



Copyrighted, 1905 
BY HOMER L. CLARK. 



Press of 

Observer Job Rooms, 

Washington, Pa. 




COL. DIX. 

(From a daguerreotype in possession of Miss Emma Sherman Ui 
Mrs. F. D. Schuyler, of Huntington, L. I.) 



and 



This little book is dedicated 
to her to whom I am indebted 
for the idea of writing it — 
MY MOTHER. 

H. L. C. 
Washington, Pa., 
May 1, 1905. 



PREFACE, 



,L^- ^Ai, HE MEXICAN WAR is now generally viewed 

^ ??r '^Z ^^ ^^^^ light of ancient history, yet that 

s(f. ^^ y period of our National growth, perhaps more 

^^IxyAA//^ than any other, bears a definite relation to 

present day history yet in the making. 

That war and its immediate results gave the United 
States the geographical predominance in North America 
out of which has grown virtual overlordship of the Western 
Hemisphere. The writer is persuaded that the life of a 
gallant soldier who rendered distinguished service in a 
critical battle of that war has a definite historical value, 
and makes no apology for presenting it, save regret for 
its fragmentary character. 

It is hoped that other matter introduced may prove 
not uninteresting; the more so that writers of United 
States History, almost without exception, have entirely 
ignored the first work of internal improvement undertaken 
by the General Government and have given no account of 
the terrible Cholera visitations near the middle of the 
last century. 

To the many who have aided him in obtaining infor- 
mation relative to the subject the writer returns his 
thanks, and especially so to Rev. Morgan Dix, D. C. L., 
of New York, for permission to reproduce the letters of 
Col. Dix which form the most valuable part of the work. 

H. L. C. 
Washington, Pa., May 1. 1905. 



Geographical. 



^4 



HE little village of Hillsborough, now better 



known as Scenery Hill, clings to the broken 
^ eastern slope of the highest of the foot hills 



^^\6A/^^ of Southwestern Pennsylvania, that once de- 
batable region claimed first alike by England 
and France and later by both Virginia and Pennsylvania. 
This region Washington visited repeatedly. First in 1753 
as a peaceful envoy to the French forts at Venango and 
Leboeuf and in each of the two years succeeding, with 
fire and sword. Later he came again on peaceful errands 
yet on conquest bent, for he surveyed and obtained title 
to considerable tracts of land and laid out the little town 
of Perryopolis on the same plan as later the National 
Capital on a large scale. 

To this region he sent during his term as President 
a United States Army, threatening to come in person if 
needs were to quell the Whiskey Insurrection, while the 
company of Minute Men organized at Washington, Pa., the 
same spring under State authority warily watched the 
frontier Indians from their post at Ryerson's on the head 
waters of Wheeling creek, and never raised a hand to 



LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



curb the disorder of their turbulent wliite fellow citizens 
with whose aims they were doubtless in sympathy. 

From the summit of Hillsborough hill which com- 
mands a view of upwards of thirty miles in every direction, 
may be seen the sites of scores of stills seized or destroyed 
by Washington's Revenue Officers, for spread out to the 
northward like a map lies the whole extent of the valley 
of Pigeon Creek, from its first fountains to where it joins 
the Monongahela at Parkinson's Ferry (now Monongahela 
City), the worst storm center of that lawless time. 

A pall of smoke by day and a glow of fire by night, 
ever renewed by the insatiable fires of the great steel 
plants at Homestead and Braddock and the blazing coke 
ovens of the Youghiogheny valley, marks the line of 
Braddock's advance against Fort Duquesne and there, 
where the smoke now shows thickest at the mouth of 
Turtle creek he forded the river and drew up in battle line 
his red-coated Regulars and blue-coated Virginians that 
fatal July noonday, one hundred and fifty years ago. 

Following the fall of Fort Duquesne three years later 
a great tide of immigration came pouring over Laurel Hill 
by Braddock's road to settle the only section of Pennsyl- 
vania ever won in war between European nations. 

Sixty years later was opened the road designated in 
Acts of Congress as the Cumberland Road but known 
locally then and now as the National Pike which at once 
became, as Gen. Sherman termed it a quarter of a century 
later, the great highway of travel East and West. 



GEOGRAPHICAL. 



At the time of which we write the road had lost 
something of its commanding position as a highway of 
National commerce by the opening of the Erie and Penn- 
sylvania Portage Canal routes but was still the route of 
the Western Fast Mail and since the completion of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road to Cumberland had become 
as great a trunk line of passenger travel comparatively 
as is the Pennsylvania Rail Road to-day. 

Located nine stages west of Cumberland and four 
east of Wheeling Hillsborough was an important station 
and flourished until the withdrawal of the through stages 
which inevitably followed the opening of the rail road to 
Wheeling. The coaching period was the heyday of Hills- 
borough's prosperity, its golden age. Its residents were in 
the township of West Bethlehem, for the village has never 
been incorporated, but scarcely of it. They were for the 
most part Scotch Irish and English from the East, attracted 
thither by the business opportunities of a stage station. 
The rural population was largely German, an offshoot of 
that emigration from the Palatinate and neighboring prov- 
inces, driven out during the second quarter of the eigh- 
teenth century by a persecution as relentless as it was 
bloodless. These Germans had lingered for a time in the 
Cumberland Valley and perhaps gained their first knowl- 
edge of the fertility of the ultamontane soil by service 
as wagoners in Braddock's or Forbes' expeditions. They 
were essentially a community of farmers with no taste 



LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



for village life. Many even located their dwelling remote 
from the highways for greater seclusion. 

The traffic on the road gave them a ready and active 
market for their produce which being consumed, so to 
say, on the spot escaped the cost of transportation to 
distant markets and the profits of middlemen, the tavern 
landlords alone excepted. Those living directly on the 
line of the road escaped even this tax. Immense droves 
of fat cattle, sheep and hogs by the hundreds and horses 
roped together in bunches of six or more were constantly 
passing eastward and the drovers bought and fed the 
forage of the farmers in their own wide barnyards by the 
roadside. 

Great Conestoga wagons built at Lancaster and having 
a capacity of five tons, toiled slowly east and west, the 
bells on their teams of four and six jingling merrily. 
There was no hauling of "empties" by this old freight line. 
They loaded down to Baltimore with bacon, grain and 
whiskey, up with salt-fish or general merchandise. 

Not least, a long procession of stages passed back 
and forth between Wheeling and Cumberland. There were 
mail coaches and extra stages horsed with teams of the 
best blood and breeding money could buy; the Eclipse, the 
Henry Clay, Black Hawk and Winflower strains. The 
driver, an expert whip, carried in his pouch a way bill on 
which was entered the name and destination of every 
passenger, and if a mail coach, every bag carried, letter 



GEOGRAPHICAL. 



pouches being described as lock-mail, newspaper bags as 
canvass. 

The speed attained in emergencies is almost incredible. 
It is well authenticated that a mail coach carried Polk's 
message announcing a state of war with Mexico from 
Cumberland to Wheeling — 131 miles — in twelve hours, 
stopping long enough in Uniontown for the passengers it 
also carried to breakfast. 

On the withdrawal of the stages Hillsborough sank 
into a Rip VanWinkle- like sleep. The trade of the busy- 
stores rapidly dwindled. The more of them closed their 
doors forever. The coach houses or taverns became dwel- 
lings. The wagon stands, as teamsters' inns were called, 
met a like fate. Some stage drivers took up other occupa- 
tions, others went West to drive on the Overland. No new 
buildings were erected, none pulled down, fire destroj^ed 
but few. Hillsborough appeared to be a permanently 
"finished town." 

But the sleeper has awakened. The millionaire coal 
operator has pushed his rail road close up to the foot of 
the northern steepest slope of the hill. The smoke from 
the great boiler house clouds the sky. The shafts pierce 
deep into the earth. From a thousand feet below the little 
church and cemetery which crown the hill the rattling 
cages daily lift a thousand tons of coal, to be dumped 
noisily into the yawning hoppers of huge steel cars and 
hurried away to the ports of the great lakes, to New Eng- 
land and upper Canada. 



iU LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



Stores have multiplied. Smart dwellings and tidy 
miners' tenements have sprung up as if in the night. The 
unfamiliar tongues of Eastern Europe, mingled with the 
soft dialect of the Southern negro are heard about the 
old tavern doors. A National Bank flourishes. The town 
has lost its old flavor and individuality. It is proper that 
it should bear a new name. 

In what follows an attempt will be made to give a 
picture of a night's happenings in Hillsborough in 1849; 
as incidental to recalling the life and achievements of a 
noble patriot and gallant Christian soldier who sleeps on 
the hill, laid there by reverent though stranger hands on 
January 7, 1849, Brevet Lieut. Col. Roger Sherman Dix, 
of the United States Regular Army, whose gallant behavior 
at Beuna Vista merits undying remembrance. 




HISTORICAL. 



11 



"^ Historical. "^ 



it^' 






Ai^ N a bitterly cold winter morning, Saturday, 



© 



^ January 6, 1849, to be exact, the new and 
y swift steamboat Telegraph No. 2 lay moored 
in the Ohio at Wheeling, almost beneath the 
new bridge which Governor Johnson of Penn- 
sylvania denounced in his next annual message as an 
obstruction to the navigation of Western waters. Thin 
wreaths of smoke curled lightly from her tall graceful 
chimneys. Heavy masses of floating ice ground roughly 
against her larboard quarter, making her strain at her 
creaking shore lines. She had arrived late in the night 
and Captain Mason learning that the river was closed 
higher up had determined to lay up here and make no 
present attempt to reach his home port of Pittsburg. 

The roustabouts were busy getting out cargo and a 
miscellaneous assortment of bales and boxes lay heaped 
upon the sloping wharf to say nothing of barrels of sugar 
and molasses and hogsheads of tobacco. Shortly after 
eight o'clock an extra stage of the "old line" drove down 



12 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



to the wharf. Six gentlemen, two of them wearing the 
fatigue uniform and scarlet lined cloaks of Regular Army 
officers, came down the gang plank, followed by black deck 
hands carrying trunks and portmanteaus. Threading their 
way through the heaped up merchandise the party reached 
the stage. The baggage was thrown on the boot and the 
heavy leather cover strapped securely down. The travel- 
lers entered the stage, the driver headed his team east- 
ward at a brisk trot which soon became a slow walk as the 
steep ascent of Wheeling hill was encountered. This 
obstacle surmounted and the Clay monument passed the 
stage whirled rapidly over the narrow level floor of the 
Wheeling Creek Valley, the driver urging his team to 
its best speed, for after the State line sixteen miles out, 
should be passed there would be no more long level 
stretches until the distant valley of Wills Creek, a few 
miles west of Cumberland should be reached. 

The hoarse rumble of the wheels and the loud hoof- 
beats of the horses on the frozen road heralded the ap- 
proach of the stage and when the old stone tavern at 
Roney's Point was reached fresh horses stood harnessed 
by the roadside. The driver threw the reins on the 
horses' backs. The hostler and grooms undid the neck 
straps and traces and in a twinkling the fresh teams were 
hooked up. The driver wrapped his blanket more tightly 
around him, adjusted the reins in his left hand, cracked 
his long lashed whip about the ears of the leaders and the 



HISTORICAL. la 

Stage was off for Claysville where a short stop was made 
for luncheon and fresh horses. 

Shortly after two o'clock the stage pulled up before 
the old National Hotel in Washington. The travellers 
came in to warm themselves before the roaring coal fire 
in the wide bar room which served as an office for the 
hotel and stage company as well. The driver handed his 
way bill to Mr. Lane, the landlord and stage agent, who 
after checking it up observed to Col. Dix, Vv^hom he 
knew, that he was not looking well. The Colonel 
replied that he was feeling indisposed but thought himself 
able to continue the journey. The agent handed the way 
bill to the waiting driver, the passengers again boarded 
the stage. A slam of the door, a snap of the whip and 
the stage swung around the corner and rapidly disappeared 
out Maiden street. A short time after leaving Washington 
Col. Dix said to his clerk: "Ah! Goddard, I feel I am 
doomed, but I must try to bear up and get to the wife and 
little girls at Baltimore." 

At half-past five the stage was toiling slowly, with 
smoking horses, up the long western slope of Hillsborough 
hill. The summit reached, the team of its own accord 
quickened its pace and the stage dashed down the steep 
village street in the gathering dusk. A sharp turn to the 
left at the end of the first pitch of the hill, a flash of fire 
struck from the rough cobble pavement of the stage yard, 
and the conveyance pulled up before the old stone tavern, 
older than the village itself. The towering and expansive 



14 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



form of Samuel Youman, described by Col. Searight as 
the second largest man on the road, stood on the wide 
porch his hand extended to greet his coming guests. Tjie 
party passed into the house. The horses were unhitched 
and left to stroll at will to the huge stone drinking trough 
and thence to the long barn back of the tavern. 

The arrival of the stage attracted little attention. 
Hillsborough was accustomed to meeting distinguished 
travellers face to face. Three of the last four Presidents- 
elect had passed this way to be inaugurated, the fourth 
would come in six weeks more in the person of General 
Taylor. Even the uniforms of Col. Dix and Maj. Anderson 
called forth little comment. During the Mexican War 
period, just closed, the sight of gold lace and shoulder 
straps had become a common one. The first thing to 
arouse unusual curiosity was that the stage was left stand- 
ing in the yard and no relay of horses, as was usual, 
brought out. Plainly the party had put up for the night. 

The political campaign closed two months earlier had 
been a heated one. In every Whig house hung colored 
prints of Genl. Taylor mounted on a white horse or 
standing with drawn sword, beneath the caption, "Gen'l 
Zachary Taylor, Rough and Ready, the Hero of Palo Alto, 
Reseca de la Palma, Monterey and Buena Vista." The 
history of the war in Northern Mexico had been ventilated 
more thoroughly from the stump and in the Whig news- 
papers than it ever has been since and was fresh in the 
public mind. The way bill in the landlord's hands revealed 



HISTORICAL. 15 



the identity of the travellers and the citizens soon crowded 
into the wide barroom to tender them the customary in- 
frrmal reception. Major Anderson greeted them cordially 
bat explained that Col. Dix felt so indisposed that he had 
retired to his room. His discomfort momentarily increas- 
ing, physicians were sent for and Dr. Jos. W. Alexander, 
who afterwards served with distinction as a surgeon in 
the Civil War and who at the time of his death, a few 
years since, had been for many years Medical Director of 
the great State Reform School at Morganza, responded, 
and with him his colleague, Dr. Winston Rogers. In re- 
sponse to their inquiries Col. Dix explained that he had 
at first attributed his illness to an attack of indigestion, 
oysters which he had eaten at Wheeling having apparently 
disagreed with him. The usual remedies were applied but 
the patient grew rapidly and alarmingly worse. Severe 
attacks of cramps came on followed by periods of deep 
exhaustion. Alexander's soft blue eyes grew moist and 
his kindly face grew grave. It was whispered about the 
house that the patient might be suffering from the terrible 
disease that was devastating the West and South. The 
assembled throng rapidly melted away and stood in little 
knots on the street or in the stores excitedly discussing 
the situation. Eight o'clock came, nine o'clock passed. 
The doctors had not left the house. At ten o'clock the 
light still burned brightly in the sick room. Curious 
passers by saw through the uncurtained window the 
doctors with coats off and sleeves rolled up working over 



IG LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



their suffering patient. The village sank into troubled 
sleep. Shortly after one o'clock Dr. Alexander dropped 
the pulseless wrist and shook his head. Maj. Anderson 
was deeply affected. Mr. Goddard broke out in sobs. He 
had been with Col. Dix for many months and had become 
deeply attached to him. 

Soon the harsh rasp of the saw and the loud insistent 
rat-tat of the hammer at the undertaker's shop across the 
way woke the troubled sleepers to tell them that Col. Dix 
had passed away and the dreaded Cholera had claimed a 
victim in their midst. 

No doubt being entertained as to the nature of the 
Colonel's disease it was thought best to prepare for burial 
at once. His trunk was opened and his dress uniform 
taken out and brushed, the undertaker came to measure 
him for his last earthly tenement. The village sexton 
was roused and set about his work. Soon the dead lay as 
if clad for dress-parade on the bed where he had breathed 
his last and hidden from view by a broad snowy sheet 
spread canopy wise over the old fashioned bedstead. At 
last all was ready. The undertaker with the sexton 
brought the coffin on a bier, a black wooden stretcher with 
folding legs. The bier was set down in the middle of 
tiie room. The Colonel's mortal remains were laid in the 
coffin, a small flag was laid on his breast and his cloak 
wrapped about him. The lid was fastened down. Major 
Anderson took his place at the head and in choking tones 
read the burial service from the Colonel's own prayer book. 



HISTORICAL. 17 

The doctors and tavern folks acting as bearers "lifted" 
and passed out into the frosty air, the friends following 
and the mournful little procession moved up the hill 
through the long shadows for the moon within a few hours 
of full hung low in the West. Some residents looked with 
curious eyes through their closed windows, the more timid 
cowered back in alarm. The short journey done, on the 
bleak and wind swept hill top the cofRn was quickly 
lowered to its final resting place. That last scene must 
have been intensely dramatic; Major Anderson reading 
the last brief prayers by the flaring light of the sexton's 
lantern, the few friends standing by with bowed heads. 
Striking indeed was the resemblance to that burial on 
another January night on the ramparts of Corunna, forty 
years before. Only the distant booming of the guns and 
the near by sobbing of the surf was wanting to complete 
the picture and Dix like Moore "lay like a warrior with 
his martial cloak around him." 

The last rites over the travellers returned to the 
tavern and a hasty breakfast was served. With a heavy 
heart Mr. Goddard took charge of his chief's official papers 
and his little personal effects. He thought of the anxieties 
of the past weeks, the long tedious days and nights on the 
river, the alarm when the Cholera appeared on board, the 
hasty burial of the first victim in mid stream. The sense 
of relief experienced when they had landed at Wheeling, 
the glad anticipation of his chief for an early reunion 
with his little family, the ajixious wife and eager little 



18 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



girls awaiting at Baltimore the coming of the beloved 
husband and idolized father. Now his must be the heavy 
task of bearing the death tidings to the stricken family. 
The baggage was loaded, the horses brought out, the 
driver mounted the box and as the little party bade fare- 
well to the big hearted landlord and his family, the first 
rays of the sun as it rose from behind the blue mountains, 
fell upon the freshly heaped mound of earth upon the hill, 
a glorious promise of the Resurrection and the Life. 




BIOGRAPHICAL. 



19 



Biographical 



fii 

^s^^ 



^i.. OGER SHERMAN DIX was born at Bosca- 
^ wen, N. H., June 7, 1810. His father was 
^ ^ rw ^ Lieut. Col. Timothy Dix, who had served with 
"^ilvAA^^ir distinction in the Revolution and died in ser- 
vice at Sacketts Harbor, N. Y., when Roger 
was less than three years old. His mother, Lucy Hamp- 
den, nee Dix, was a woman of unusual force and spirit for 
although it is of record that "her husband left her with 
eight children and an estate badly neglected in conse- 
quence of his devotion to the public service" she was able 
to give her boys the best educational advantages that the 
time afforded. She took a keen interest in their careers 
and at the age of eighty could discuss politics with her 
famous step-son, Genl. Jno, A. Dix, with great wit and 
animation. At the time of the father's death, Jno. A. 
Dix was an Ensign in the U. S. Army and the youngest 
officer in the service. His subsequent long and brilliant 
career as Soldier, Statesman and Diplomat is too well 
known to need further mention here. 



20 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



Of the boyhood of Roger Dix we know nothing. It is 
the family tradition that he always had an ambition to be 
a soldier. He must have been a precocious child for we 
find him at the age of eleven a student at the famous 
Philips Academy at Andover, Mass. The average age of 
students admitted that year was sixteen. The same year 
N. P. Willis, afterwards famous as a poet, was admitted. 
In 1824 came the immortal Oliver Wendell Holmes, who 
graduated the next year in the same class with young 
Dix. The year following Roger was at Hanover, N. H., 
a Dartmouth Freshman. Of the next year we have no 
account but it is probable that having been promised an 
appointment to West Point he was pursuing some studies 
with especial reference to the entrance examinations. 

July 1, 1827, he entered West Point and met for the 
first time Jefferson Davis, but the acquaintance could not 
have ripened into intimacy for Davis was a member of the 
graduating class. In 1832 Dix graduated with his class 
and immediately entered upon active army service in the 
Black Hawk expedition as Brevet 2nd Lieut. 7th Infantry. 
Active hostilities were over before he reached the seat of 
war. In 1833-34 he was on frontier duty at Ft, Smith. Ark. 
In January, 1834, while on duty at Fort Gibson, I. T., he 
was promoted 2nd Lieut. 7th Infantry and ]^tev in the 
same year was stationed at Little Rock. In February, 
1835, he was again back at Fort Gibson being detailed for 
topographical duty from January 2G, 1835, to August 10, 
183G, during which time (July 31, 1836,) he was promoted 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 21 



First Lieutenant and sent on recruiting service. During 
1837 and 1838 he was on Quartermaster duty at Carlisle, 
Pa., being promoted July 7, 1838, to the grade of Captain 
and Quartermaster. While stationed at Carlisle Captain 
Dix superintended the construction of the barracks there 
from his own designs. He was a draughtsman of unusual 
ability. His original plans for the Carlisle barracks are 
now in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Katharine 
Dix Lawrence, of Plainfield, N. J. 1839 and 1840 found 
him on duty at Charleston, S. C, and Boston, Mass., whence 
he returned to frontier duty in the Southwest, serving as 
Captain in the 7th Infantry. 

When war with Mexico was threatened we find him 
at Ft. Jessup, La., with his command. September 30, 
1845, he was promoted to be a paymaster with the rank 
of Major and accompanied General Taylor's army to 
Corpus Christi, Tex. Here he again met and became inti- 
mately acquainted with Jefferson Davis. At the same time 
he met for the first time Ulysses S. Grant. Upon both he 
so impressed his personalty that they never forgot him. 
Grant in his Memoirs speaks of a journey from Corpus 
Christi to Austin in company with a number of other 
officers. Major Dix being the only one he recalls by name. 
Years after President Grant at a reception in Washington 
sought out Col. Dix's youngest daughter and talked to 
her long and fluently, recalling minute incidents of his 
iicquaintance with her father, to the no little astonishment 



22 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



of many guests who wondered why the silent and impas- 
sive soldier had so much to say to a woman. 

The personal magnetism and charm of the man was 
unusual. Confederate President Davis, his proud spirit 
bowed under all the bitter realization of a Lost Cause 
could grow cheerful enthusiastic as he described the 
magnificent horsemanship and engaging manners of his 
comrade of other days. 

Maj. Dix's duties as Paymaster kept him out of action 
until the battle of Buena Vista. For gallant and meritor- 
ious conduct on that field he was breveted Lieut. Colonel. 
The nature of that service is best described by himself 
in a confidential letter to his brother. This letter was 
first made public thirty-six years later and is as follows: 

Saltillo, Mexico, Feb. 25, '47. 
My Dear Brother: 

I have but a few moments to write you but I have such 
news to communicate as will be gratifying to you and to 
every American man, woman and child and I therefore give 
it. We have had another fight with the Mexicans and as 
usual gained the victory. Santa Anna commanded in 
person, he had 20,000 troops. We had barely 5,000. Skir- 
mishing between the two armies commenced on the even- 
ing of the 22nd (m.ark the day) and continued during the 
night. About 7 a. m. of the 23rd the battle began in earnest 
and we fought until 5 p. m. when the enemy retired from 
the field. The next morning they were in full retreat and 
in the evening encamped about ten miles from the battle- 
ground, the last place at which they could get water for a 
long distance. Our position was a strong one which we did 
not wish to lose and we were weak in numbers or we would 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 23 



have pursued them. They encamped at Augua Nueva, the 
battle was fought at Buena Vista ten miles this side. 

I was in the action from is commencement until its 
close — with Genl. Taylor part of the time, Genl. Wool part 
of the time and carrying their orders to different parts of 
the field. I flatter myself I made myself about as useful as 
ornamental. I came off thanks to God without a wound. 
How it was I know not for the musket balls flew thick as 
hail around me and a cannon shot would occasionally throw 
up the dust near me. 'Twas an awful fight and 'tis said by 
all to be much harder than that of Monterey. Ten hours 
fighting is no trifle. I came to Mexico to see the elephant, 
I have seen him and am perfectly willing never to see him 
again. 

Genl. Wool behaved most nobly and well has he 
earned the brevet of Maj. General. I can hardly think 
Santa Anna will try it again. Their loss 'tis said (I do not 
believe it) was between 3 and 4000. Ours I do not think 
exceeds 500 in killed and wounded, many valuable lives 
have been lost. Capt. Lincoln son of Gov. Levi Lincoln of 
Mass, Adjt. Genl. to Genl. Wool and one of the noblest and 
most chivalrous and gallant soldiers was killed at the com- 
mencement of the action while encouraging an Indiana regi- 
ment to stand its ground. 

Lieut. Col. Henry Clay Jr. of the Kentucky foot is also 
numbered among the dead. A more gallant soldier or high 
minded and honorable man never lived. He and Lincoln 
were among my best friends. Clay was my class-mate when 
I entered West Point and we have always been warm 
friends. Poor fellow! he is gone. Col. Yell of Arkansas 
and formerly Governor of the state is among the killed 
and many others whom I have not time to enumerate. I 
will only mention one thing more and let it be strictly 
entre nous. I ought not perhaps either to say anything 
about it but as I have commenced, here goes. 

Soon after the fight commenced one of the Indiana 
regiments which was exposed to a tremendous fire from the 
enemy broke and ran. They were some distance off when 



24 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



Genl. Wool met me — I was then with the dragoons and 
about to charge with them — and ordered me to rally them 
and bring them into action. I put spurs to my horse and 
galloped to the rear. They were broken into parties of 
three and four and were more than half a mile from the 
fight. I stopped them. I urged begged and entreated 
them; then cursed and abused them and finally in about 
half and hour with the aid of Capt. Linnard of the Topo- 
graphical Engineers I succeeded in collecting about half 
the regiment, then taking their flag (they were still some- 
what panic stricken) I called to them that if they were not 

a set of d d cowards they would follow their flag and I 

moved toward the field. They gave me three cheers and I 
led them to the field and reported to Genl. Wool. These 
men afterwards fought bravely and never left the ground. 
Their General (Lane) and their Lieut. Col. (Haddon) both 
tried without success to bring them back and Genl. Lane 
that evening after the fight and again next morning thanked 
me and told me if it had not been for me they would never 
have returned to the fight. I do not know if Genl. Taylor 
saw it but Genl. Lane mentioned it to him next morning. 
I felt I had done my duty. That was enough for me. Genl. 
Wool and Col. Churchill both shook hands with me next 
morning and congratulated me (I suppose on the result 
of the battle.) 

Santa Anna sent in a flag of truce before the fight 
requesting Genl. Taylor to surrender wiui his army saying 
that he had over 20000 men etc. and promising to treat 
us kindly. Genl. Taylor wrote him back 'twas all the 
same if he had 50,000 and if he wanted us he must come 
and take us, thanking him at the same time for his kind- 
ness. The next morning he told his troops that ours were 
all volunteers and he would whip us in ten minutes — a 
slight mistake. 

At one time I feared as did many others that the battle 
would go against us — 'twas when my Indianans ran. They 
haa turned our left flank and were pouring in their forces 
but our artillery poured such a discharge of grape into 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 25 



them that they soon fell back. I rode over the field the 
next day and the sight sickened me; 'twas horrible — 
the wounded and the dead. Many of the poor Mexicans are 
now in our Hospital and well cared for, officers as well as 
men. I think Santa Anna has got enough and will now 
retire to San Luis. God grant it for I am tired of such 
scenes as this. 

This will be handed you perhaps by additional Pay- 
master Coffee (son of old Genl. coffee) he takes the dis- 
patches of Genl. Taylor to New Orleans and probably to 
Washington. He has been with me for some weeks. He 
was in the battle and is a noble fellow. Treat him kindly. 
Love to Catharine and all your family. 

Ever your affectionate Brother, 

R. S. DIX. 
Hon. Jno. A. Dix, U. S. Senator. 

This letter gives close insight to Col. Dix's character 
as a soldier. Just in his estimate of his superiors, thought- 
fully kind in the treatment of his subordinates, cool, 
calculating, daring. Years afterwards .Jefferson Davjs 
recalled his remarkable skill as a horseman and spoke in 
terms of admiration of his "bold, mad manner of riding." 
Small wonder that this with his personal appearance 
should prove an inspiration, as with flashing eye, his tall 
form erect he galloped hither and thither, his long fair 
hair floating in the wind, his shrewd judgment of human 
nature teaching him just what words were needed to arouse 
a courage only cowed by sudden panic. Davis declared 
years afterwards that Col. Dix had also aided in holding 
steady the wavering Mississippi riflemen and that State 
owed him a lasting debt of gratitude. 



26 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



The true soldier's spirit shines forth in this letter of 
Col. Dix. We read between the lines that he hopes for the 
promotion he knows he has earned. If it comes, well and 
good. If not he is content with the realization of duty 
well done. 

A month later he writes to his brother again. The 
letter throws a strong side light on the critical position 
of Genl. Taylor's little army at Buena Vista. 

Saltillo, Mexico, Mch. 25, '47. 
My Dear Brother: 

Ere this reaches you you will doubtless have seen an 
account of our late victory at Buena Vista. I wrote you on 
the 25th giving a brief account of it. Santa Anna has 
retreated out of the province and will undoubtedly push on 
to the city of Mexico to prevent \[ think) another revolu- 
tion. His fate is sealed, the loss of this battle with such 
disparity of forces is enough to damn him with the Mexican 
people and Congress. He has written to the Governor here 
that he has not been defeated, that he has captured three 
pieces of our cannon (this is true and their loss saved us) 
and that he is going to Matahuala about 125 miles from 
here to recruit his army. This is all stuff and nonsense. 
That place cant supply his army with provisions for one 
day. He is gone for good and we shall in my opinion see 
no more of him on this line. I understand there are five 
regiments en route for this place. Had they been here 
before the battle Santa Anna would have been routed, 
for on his retreat we should have been strong enough to 
have pushed him. 

'Tis well however as it is we have gained a glorious 
victory. Had they attacked us on the following day I 
believe sincerely we should have been defeated. The 
best of the volunteer officers or quite a number of them 
had been killed and the men had had enough of fighting 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 27 



and no persuasion entreaties or cursings could have got 
them to do any more at least they refused to move that 
evening. Genl. Wool and myself rode on to one of the 
heights where parts of two regiments were (and they those 
who had fought best) and endeavored to get them forward 
to the next height and all that we could say was of no 
avail. Genl. Wool struck one or two of the officers with 
his sword but it would not do. 'Tis true the men were 
nearly exhausted but had Santa Anna then pushed forward 
two or three fresh regiments of infantry the result of the 
baLLie would have been different. Thanks to God he had 
got enough and so had his troops. 

The shrewd judgment and foresight in military affairs 
shown in these letters needs no comment. Subsequent 
events justified the predictions made and their literal ful- 
fillment is history. 

The merited promotion came and from the date of 
Buena Vista until his death Col. Dix ranks as Bvt. Lieut. - 
Col. U. S. A. His duties as Paymaster claimed his atten- 
tion until the close of the war. He came to Washington 
in the summer of 1848 and during a short leave of absence 
visited his brother's family at East Hampton, L. I. He 
was ordered back to duty at New Orleans again in the 
early fall. His work there finished, about the middle of 
December in company with Maj. Nathaniel Anderson and 
his clerk, Mr. I. B. Goddard, he took passage for Louisville 
where he transferred to the Telegraph and landed at 
Wheeling January 6, 1849. Thence he has already been 
followed to his last resting place. 

The tidings of his death quickly reached New York 



28 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



for the wires of the recently organized Western Telegraph 
Company already stretched west of Wheeling, following the 
"old pike" route from Baltimore, and on January 9th 
the following dispatch appeared in the New York Herald: 

Wheeling, Va., Jan. 8, by telegraph. — Yesterday morn- 
ing Col. Dix of the Army died with the Cholera in a stage 
on the National Road about 40 miles east of this place. 

The correspondent's informant was doubtless a stage 
driver who told him Col. Dix had died in a "stage house," 
for such was the local designation of taverns which were 
stopping places for stages. 

Confused and contradictory reports followed in the 
New York papers of the 10th and 11th. The Tribune of 
the 8th had published a dispatch dated New Orleans, Jan. 
4. in which it was stated that 190 deaths were reported 
for January 2 and 3, 140 being from cholera. The same 
paper announced the arrival at Louisville, December 30, 
of the Steamer Peytona with 400 passengers, and 52 cholera 
cases. It is not improbable that Col. Dix and his friends had 
reached Louisville on the steamboat Peytona, as the adver- 
tisements in the Pittsburg papers of the time show that 
she was the regular New Orleans connection of the Tele- 
graph No. 2. A low river and the heavy ice would account 
for the apparent discrepancy in time. The Telegraph, 
appears to have been the first infected boat to reach 
Wheeling, an apparently reliable authority reporting sev- 
eral cases of Cholera and one death en route. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 29 



No reliable and circumstantial account of Col. Dix's 
death appeared until January 12, in the Washington, D. 
C, Union, and January 18, in the Washington, Pa., Weekly 
Examiner. The obituary notice from the Union is as 
follows: 



Lieut, Col. Dix of the U. S. Army. It will give great 
pain to his numerous friends to learn the death of this 
gallant officer and high minded gentleman. CoL Dix was 
a native of New Hampshire, a brother of the Senator in 
Congress from New York and a son of Col, Timothy Dix 
of the Army who lost his life in the illfated expedition of 
Genl. Wilkinson in 1S13. He was educated at West Point 
and at the moment of completing his course of study in 
1832 instead of accepting the leave of absence for a few 
months, usually granted to graduates he volunteered his 
Services and accompanied Genl. Scott on the Black Hawk 
expedition. After serving several years in the Quarter- 
master's dept. as one of its most efficient officers he was 
appointed by Mr. Polk near the commencement of his 
administration a Paymaster in the Army. He accompanied 
Genl. Taylor with whom he had previously served several 
years at Pt. Jessup to Corpus Christi before the war with 
Mexico. He was with the General during the two days of 
Buena Vista officiating part of the time as his Aid de 
camp and part of the time in the same capacity to Genl. 
Wool the gallant second in command. For his distinguish- 
ed gallantry on that bloody field Maj. Dix was breveted a 
Lieut. Col. at the last session of Congress. Few officers 
of his department have rendered more constant or efl^cient 
service since the commencement of the war. 

He was either in Mexico paying troops or in the U. S. 
expediting volunteers to the field. Since the termination 
of hostilities he has been engaged in paying troops as they 
returned from the theatre of war; and he was on his way 
to this city to render his account of his last service when 



30 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



he was stricken by the hand of death. On Friday he 
arrived at Wheeling and was perfectly well. Tho next 
morning he set out with five other gentlemen in ?ai extra 
stage for Cumberland. On arriving at Hillsborough at 
half past five in the evening he felt unwell and his com- 
panions at once determined to stop with him for the night. 
In a few minutes he was violently attacked with the 
Cholera which resisted all remedies, at one o'clock in the 
night he was dead and the next day his companions followed 
him to the grave. 

The military spirit which animated him lived with 
him to the last. A short time before he died he whispered 
to a friend by whose assiduous and devoted attention his 
last struggles were watched and as far as human kindness 
could avail alleviated : "Would to God I could have died 
on the battle field in Mexico." and he instantly added, 
"but it is for Him to dispose of us in life as well as in 
death.'" 

He has left a little family to deplore his loss, relatives 
to cherish the remembrance of his manly virtues, friends 
to recall his frank and noble hearted bearing in private 
intercourse and a country to hold in grateful and admiring 
recollection his most gallant service in the field of battle. 

On account of the infectious nature of the disease of 
which he died Col. Dix's remains were never removed. 
Some time after his death the Government proposed to 
remove him to Washington and give him a Military 
funeral. Against this project the citizens of Hillsborough 
protested so strongly that it was abandoned. It is only 
justice to his relatives to say that they felt the people of 
Hillsborough were right. Moreover they had little cause 
to sympathize with the Government's desire to honor itself 
at the expense of one of its dead heroes. The next year a 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 31 



plain marble slab was placed over him by order of his 
younger brother, Timothy Brown Dix, Esq., of Boston, and 
the belief long current at Hillsborough, that Genl. John 
A. Dix came and superintended the work in person has no 
foundation in fact. 

Col. Dix married July 7, 1835, Mrs. Mary Beam Johnson, 
an Army officer's widow, who shared with him the hard- 
ships and anxieties of Army life. Mrs. Dix was a Maryland 
lady, connected by descent and marriage with the Calverts, 
Carrolls, Bowies and Magruders. Dr. Beanes the planter 
whose release Francis Scott Key had gone to negotiate 
when he was detained on the British man of war, and 
wrote the Star Spangled Banner during the bombardment 
of Ft. McHenry in 1814, was Mrs. Dix's uncle. She 
survived her husband three full decades and died at 
White Plains, N. Y., in the winter of 1879. Four children, 
all daughters, were born to Col. and Mrs. Dix. One died 
in infancy and before her father. The other three at this 
date still survive. 

It was intended when this sketch was begun to give 
an estimate of Col. Dix's character as a man, a soldier and 
a patriot. It would be superfluous to do so. The record 
given speaks more emphatically of his worth than any 
words the writer could frame. He can not, however, refrain 
from expressing his deep regret that Providence did not 
see fit to spare Col. Dix for the next and greatest call to 
arms our country has ever known. Surely he would have 
written his name with those of Hancock and Sheridan, of 



82 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



Johnson and Jackson, perhaps higher, on the scroll of fame, 
Col. Dix in his last hours regretted that the summons 
had not come to him on the field of battle, yet when his 
hour struck it was among a kindly people and he found a 
fitting resting place* He rendered his country his greatest 
service in a war of conquest. He sleeps in soil won by the 
sword. Above his head the first violets of Spring bloom 
and the last roses of Summer linger. The green turf over 
him resists longest the withering blight of the early 
frost. The distant mountains keep everlasting watch and 
ward over his grave. A fit spot for a soldier to await the 
last great roll-call. Nor does he lack companionship in death. 
In sight is the grave of Thos. Crooks a noted Revolutionary 
Colonel and Frontiersman. In the little cemetery rest 
veterans of the great Civil War. The country about is 
dotted thickly with the old family burying grounds in 
which sleep the old Frontier Rangers of the Revolution. 
A few miles away at the County town, Commander Philo 
McGiffen, the first white man to command a modern war 
ship in action sleeps his last sleep. Near him rests Col. 
Alexander Hawkins, who led the only Eastern volunteer 
regiment to see service in the Philippines, who though 
stricken with a mortal illness refused to leave his post 
and died at sea, homeward bound with his regiment. In 
the long ages to come the stone memorials above these 
graves may crumble and cease to be, but the heroic dust 
beneath is mingled with the soil of Pennsylvania forever! 



RETROSPECTIVE. 



33 



Retrospective, 






I 



S COL. DIX was the first to fall a victim to 
the Cholera in Western Pennsylvania during 
^< r^ iy the epidemic of 1848-49 it seems not inap- 
^4b\AA/iir propriate to recall that plague in connection 
^ with his death. It was one of three similar 
visitations, the first in '32-38, the last in '54. Terribly 
fatal as they were, all sections of the country did not suffer 
alike during each one. A contemporary account of the 
Cholera in Philadelphia in 1832 reads like a chapter from 
D'Foe's Journal of the Plague in London and parallels in 
horror of detail the Black Death in Florence as described 
by Boccacio in his introduction to the Decameron. 

An old diary in the possession of Mr. Thos. L. Rogers, 
of Pittsburg, records 800 Cholera deaths in that city 
within the space of about two weeks in the latter part of 
September, 1854, in a population estimated liberally at 
44,000. 

Pennsylvania escaped comparatively easy in 1849. Gov- 
ernor Johnson in his Thanksgiving Proclamation was 



L. OF C. 



34 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



moved to say: "While in other parts of our country and 
in distant lands pestilence has made fearful ravages, 
leaAing in its track the w^retchedness of desolation a 
healthful climate in the disposal of a righteous Providence 
has preserved the citizens of the State comparatively free 
from the miseries of the destroyer." Yet Pittsburg suffered 
severely. A writer in the Post late in August declares 
there had been 227 deaths in Birmingham (now the South 
Side of Pittsburg) and vicinity alone. 

Near the middle of December, 1848, Cholera broke 
out at New Orleans and when it had subsided a few months 
later it was estimated that it had claimed one-tenth of 
the entire population of the city. 

Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis suffered terribly. 
A dispatch in the Washington Examiner dated at St. Louis 
July 14 and announcing 83 Cholera interments for the 
preceding day is headed, "Good news from St. Louis." 

May 28, under the heading "Terrible Epidemic Ap- 
proaches" the Examiner publishes an appalling list of 
deaths at Western points. June IG "Not a case of Cholera 
yet, will report them promptly if any occur." 

Late in December and early in January a few cases 
appeared at the New York Quarantine Station, but energetic 
measures prevented the spread of the malady and on 
January 8 the Tribune was able to announce, "Cholera at 
an End, no new cases reported at Quarantine." June 7 
it broke out again and in the two succeeding months there 
were 3,400 deaths. The week ending July 21 showing the 



RETROSPECTIVE. 35 



greatest mortality ever known in an American city. 1,400 
deaths were reported for that week, over 700 being ac- 
knowledged to be from Cholera. Roughly stated this was 
one-sixth the normal death rate for a whole year. There 
was no outbreak in Washington in 1848-49 but frequent 
notices of deaths of citizens of the town and county at 
infected points West are recorded. 

One suspicious case was reported, that of a Lancaster 
County drover who died at the Franklin House, August 9, 
after a few hours illness. His death was attributed to 
Dysentery. There seemed to be an antipathy against 
giving the disease its true name. A large number of deaths 
were reported near Uniontown, Pa., in the early summer 
and attributed to the Fatal Malady. From the description 
given it appears to have been Cholera. By September 1 
the epidemic had spent its force and the local papers dis- 
continued telegraphic reports from the infected cities. 

The local paper's report of Col. Dix's death appeared in 
its issue of January 13, as follows; 



Death from Cholera. On Sunday morning last at 2 
o'clock Col. Dix of the U. S. Army died at Hillsborough 
twelve miles east of our borough from Asiatic-Cholera. 
He had travelled up the Ohio river to Wheeling on a 
steamboat on which there were several cases of Cholera 
and one death. On Saturday afternoon when at the stage 
office of Mr. Lane in this place he complained of indispo- 
sition not intimating however that he was apprehensive 
of an attack of Cholera. When the coach in which had 
been travelling reached Hillsborough he concluded to stop 
at that village and undergo medical treatment. A short 



36 



LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



time after he stopped Physicians were called in, but the 
disease disclosed itself in so aggravated a form that he 
died in 7 or 8 hours. Col. Dix is said to be a brother of 
Senator Dix of New York as well as to the distinguished 
female philanthropist of that name. (*) We learn that his 
illness was assuaged by every attention that could be 
bestowed by Mr. Youman the landlord of the house at 
wiiich he died, and his family. The deceased was interred 
in the village grave-yard at Hillsborough on Sabbath morn- 
ing at 7 o'clock. 



*It is perhaps unnecessary to note that the latter statement is an error. 





Photo by Craft] 



The Grave of Col. Di: 



APPENDIX. 



37 



"^ Appendix. "^ 



i 



m 



I 



,^^^ ^Ai,, N February 15, 1849, a bill to pension the 
widow of Col. R. S. Dix was brought up by 
Senator Johnson of Louisana, who stated that 
the Commissioner had refused her a pension 
on the ground that there was no law covering 
the case as he, the Commissioner, did not believe Col. Dix 
had contracted the disease of which he died in the line of 
duty. 

Opponents of the bill spoke in glowing terms of Col. 
Dix's bravery on the field of battle but contended that the 
bill should not pass as it would set a dangerous precedent 
and there would be no telling where the matter of pensions 
would end. Mr. Benton, of Missouri, referred to the glaring 
inconsistency of pensioning the widows and orphans of the 
navy regardless of the cause of saliors' deaths and making 
no provisions for land officers' representatives, and made a 
strong appeal for justice. Jefferson Davis justly argued 
that in paying returned soldiers Col. Dix was as much in 
the line of his duty as when he was paying troops in 



38 LIBUT.-COL. DIX. 



Mexico. Mr. Walker regretted his inability to give his 
vote for the bill yet expressed the hope that it might pass. 
General Sam Houston made an impassioned speech favor- 
ing the bill and Daniel Webster voted for it as did Daniel 
Sturgeon of Pennsylvania. Simon Cameron sneeringly ob- 
served that Col. Dix had been in Washington since the 
close of the war and had only gone to Tennessee or some 
other Southern state to pay off some volunteers. How- 
unjust this imputation was is shown by Col. Dix's last 
report, on file at the War Department, which shows that 
out of over $95,000 disbursed by him after he went South 
in the fall of 1848 only a trifle over a third of the sum total 
had been paid to volunteers. The Paymaster General's 
accounts confirm the statement made by Jefferson Davis 
on the floor of the Senate that Col. Dix's post had been the 
most arduous of any paymaster in the service. For this 
duty he had received $60 a month as pay, his additional 
allowances for rations, quarters, forge, and servants being 
apparently based on the actual outlay incurred. 

The bill to pension Col. Dix's widow failed. A few 
days later Mr. Hale of New Hampshire expressing his con- 
viction that his former vote had been wrong moved to take 
it up again for consideration. The motion was lost. This 
is how the Government of 1849 rewarded its soldiers who 
had won for it a new Empire in the Southwest. It would 
be perhaps hard to find a better instance of how strict con- 
structionists strained at gnats after having swallowed 
camels. 



APPENDIX. 39 



It is right to note that Mrs. Dix was eventually pen- 
sioned, with pay from the date of her husband's death. 
This pension, however, was not granted in recognition of 
Col. Dix's distinguished services, but under a general law, 
i. e., a joint resolution of Congress, approved September 23, 
1850, defining and enlarging the provisions of the act of 
July 21, 1848. This act had been constued so narrowly 
and contained provisions with reference to proof of cause of 
death so unreasonable as in many cases to be impossible 
to be complied with. 

A statement made on the floor of the Senate when the 
resolution was under consideration to the effect that 
v/idows and orphans were actually starving owing to their 
inability to produce impossible evidence, passed without 
contradiction. 

The act of 1848 was passed in response to a petition 
headed by Genl. Scott and drawn up at Puebla, Mexico, when 
the Army was about to make its final advance on the 
Capital, In it the officers of the Army prayed for relief for 
the widows and orphans of the regular troops, merely 
asking that they be put upon the same basis as the repre- 
sentatives of deceased volunteers and sailors. 

Senator Dix was the sponsor of the bill when it came 
before the Senate on final passage, July 18, 1848, The 
Senator observed with feeling that many of these brave 
men had taken pen in hand for the last time when they 
signed this appeal to their Government to protect their 
helpless families. It was perhaps the last of his thoughts 



40 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



that his own sister-in-law would be among the first to claim 
the benefit of this act as the treaty of peace had been signed 
and his brother was then in the flush of robust health. 

The writer has thought fit to preserve here a number 
of newspaper notices and other information gathered as 
they throw some additional light upon the excitement 
created by the spread of the Cholera and explain more 
fully certain allusions to matters of purely local interest. 



New York Tribune, Jan. 8, 1849: "Binghampton, N, 
Y. — First through train on the Erie Kail Road left this city 
to-day for New York. $70,000 fire in Pittsburg." Jan. 10 : 
"Col. Dix reported by telegraph as a victim of Cholera is 
a brother of Hon. Jno. A. Dix U. S. Sentator from this 
state who distinguished himself greatly in the Mexican 
War. We trust it is a false report. (The gramatical con- 
struction is the Tribune's.) Jan. 12 : "Washington corre- 
spondent of the Baltimore Sun says, Mr. Dix was absent 
from the Senate to-day in consequence of the lamented 
death of his brother Col. Dix Paymaster in the Army, the 
intelligence of which was received to-day. Col. Dix died 
of Cholera." "Pittsburg, Jan. 11, by telegraph. — Navigation 
in the Ohio entirely suspended above Wheeling in conse- 
quence of ice The Cholera at Wheeling. Death of Col. 
Dix. The Wheeling Times of the 9th says: On Saturday 
last among the passengers landed from the Telegraph No. 
2 were Col. Dix of New York a brother we believe of 
Senator Dix of that state and Major J. G. Miller of the 
same state and both oflfiicers in the U. S. Army. They 
were from New Orleans and arrived here apparently in 
perfect health. * * * qq\ Dix stopped off 

at Hillsborough and in a short time expired." (The same 
paper announced that "Major" Miller died of Cholera 
shortly after reaching Brownsville.) "The same paper of 
the 10th records another fatal case of Cholera in the same 



APPENDIX. 41 



vicinity. A gentleman name not learned who came up the 
river Saturday from New Orleans and took stage at Wheel- 
ing for Brownsville was attacked by Cholera beyond Wash- 
ington, Pa., was compelled to leave the stage and in a 
few hours died." Here is one death exaggerated into 
three by public apprehension. The item is interesting as 
giving the name of a third of Col. Dix's travelling com- 
panions the reporter wrongly identifying Major Anderson 
as J. G. Miller whose name doubtless appeared on the same 
way bill. 

Jan. 15 : Baltimore (by telegraph) — A case of Cholera 
the first yet reported in this vicinity was reported at the 
Relay House Saturday last." Jan. 8 : "Telegraph from 
New Orleans, Jan. 4. — The Cholera in our city is raging as 
fearfully as ever 195 deaths in the last two days, 140 from 
Cholera. Weather rainy.' 

Washington Examiner, July 1 : "We are well con- 
vinced Cholera prevails to a considerable extent in Pitts- 
burg. It is certain the papers have not reported half the 
cases. We do not know whether it is the fault of the 
Physicians or the printers. The public ought to know the 
state of the case." July 21 : "New York, July 18.— 199 
cases, 88 deaths." Aug. 4 : "New York, Aug. 1. — 170 
cases, 61 deaths." 



Washington, Pa., frequently referred to in the foregoing 
pages, was the most important town on the Western Fron- 
tier of Pennsylvania in Revolutionary times. The town 
and county of the same name enjoy the distinction of 
being the first in the United States to bear the name of 
Washington. Here also is located Washington and Jefferson 
College, the oldest institution of its class west of the 
Alleghanies. 



42 LIEUT.-COL. DIX. 



The Telegraph No. 2 was unquestionably the fastest 
boat in the Ohio river trade in 1849. Mark Twain is "Life 
on the Mississippi" credits her with a record run of one 
day, 17 hours, Cincinnati to Pittsburg in 1850. That this 
was no means her fastest run is shown by the Pittsburg 
Gazette of December 15, 1848, in which she is reported as 
arriving from Louisville, time 44 hours 47 minutes, beating 
the Brilliant with which she was racing by several hours. 
The distance from Pittsburg to Cincinnati is 490 miles, 
Pitttsburg to Louisville 631 miles. 

The Telegraph No. 2's speed per hour was therefore 
less than a quarter of a mile slower than the Eclipse's on 
what is stated on the authority of "Life on the Mississippi" 
to be "conspicuously the fastest time ever made." 



Pittsburg Gazette Feb. 20, 1849. "Wheeling, Feb. 20.— 
Telegraph No. 2 with Genl. Taylor on board is lying at 
foot of Captina Island 18 miles below Wheeling. He will 
come up by land and arrive at 1 o'clock to-day. Mononga- 
hela aground at head of Captina. Fort Pitt in the gorge a 
mile above. Pilot No. 2 is below Grave Creek in the ice." 



The marine columns of the same paper contain the 
names of boats made familiar by "Life on the Mississippi," 
the J. M. White (built at Elizabeth, Pa.,) Bostona, Eclipse, 
A. L. Shotwell, Alec Scott, Ben Franklin and others. 

The same paper of the 22nd announces that Genl. 
Taylor arrived in Washington (Pa.) yesterday in the coach 
"The Union as it is." After a public reception at the Court 



APPENDIX. 



43 



House he dined at the public table at his hotel (the 
Mansion.) He left Washington at 1 p. m. in an open 
carriage carriage. At the reception one citizen observed to 
another that Genl. Taylor's overcoat was not worth five 
dollars. 

The War Department records show that in 1849 the 
Government paid for telegraphic messages 5 cents per word 
Washington to New York; 15 cents to St. Louis and 20 to 
New Orleans. Also paid Adams & Co. (Adams Express) 
$5.13 for carrying three boxes for the topographical engin- 
eers from Wheeling to Baltimore. Rates to private indi- 
vidual were doubtless much higher. 

Wheeling, Nov. 10, '49 — Telegraph to Examiner: 
"Messenger No. 2 is stopped here by the bridge, and will 
have to cut off three rings from her chimneys; 21 feet of 
water. Telegraph No. 1 also stopped." 




'Telegraph fs'o. 2," from an old newspaper ad. 



^46 i 
















/"-^. 



-J^" 



. ^/"-^ 



^^0« 




«. .-^■' -'^me^^\ ^^^^ 




WtRT 

BOOKBINDING 

Crantv.ll«, Pa 

Jsn Feb 1989 












^^'\ 











illiili 



